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Lockdown lifted at Detroit airport

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — A passenger who entered a secure area at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Thursday without submitting to a security check prompted a lockdown of the facility that lasted more than two hours, officials and airport representatives said.

The man first exited a secured side of the screening checkpoint into a public area, according to airport spokesman Brian Lassaline. The man then went back into a secured area without resubmitting to security around 9 p.m. EDT, prompting the lockdown.

The man "ignored the instructions of the TSA officer and forced his way back into terminal," according to a statement from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

Airport police apprehended the individual, who was in custody late Thursday, TSA said.

The passenger had arrived on a flight from Little Rock, Arkansas, and had "allegedly missed his connection to Los Angeles," according to the statement.

During the lockdown, "breach gates" around the airport's McNamara Terminal, the facility's largest, were closed, and passengers had to remain in place, Lassaline said.

Airport police swept the terminal "out of an abundance of caution" before the airport and TSA resumed normal operations around 11:15 p.m., according to TSA. At the time security screenings resumed, about 40 passengers were in line. Operations in the north terminal were not impacted.